Francis R. Smith, S.J.

Associate Professor

Fr. Smith is a San Francisco native. As an undergraduate at Santa Clara University in the 1950s, Smith earned a B.A. in Philosophy with a minor in History (1956), and followed with an M.A. in Philosophy from Gonzaga University ten years later. By then a member of the Jesuit community, Smith next went to the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, where he was awarded the S.T.M. from the Jesuit School of Theology (1972), and from there to Rome, where he received an S.T.D. in Fundamental Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1977.

Fr. Smith began to teach at Santa Clara University in 1974. His interests include Christology, ecclesiology, and liberation theology, and he offers a range of courses on these subjects at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Research

Publications

Books
The World is Charged: The Transcendent With Us. New York: Crossroads/Herder and Herder, 2004.
The God Question: A Catholic Approach. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1988.

Chapters in Books
"The Roman Reaction to Liberation Theology: A Survey of the Recent Magisterium." In Liberation Theology and Socio-Political Transformation, a Reader: Theory and Praxis (ed. J. C. Antezana; Vancouver: Institute for Humanities, Simon Fraser University, 1992).
"The Catholic Church and the Poor." In Poverty and Social Justice (ed. Francisco Jiménez; Bilingual Press of Arizona State University, 1987).

Presentations
"Liberation Theology." Latin American Speaker Series 1991-1992 of The Latin American Studies Association of SJSU and The World Forum of Silicon Valley, San José State University, San José, CA, September 1991.
"The Origin of Jesuit Education in the Spiritual Experience of Ignatius of Loyola." Keynote Address at the Fourth Annual Institute on Jesuit Education, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, March 1990.